Actress Carrie Fisher is in critical condition after a cardiac episode on flight from London to L.A.
Star Wars” actress Carrie Fisher was in critical condition Friday after suffering a “cardiac episode” during a flight from London to Los Angeles, according to airline and emergency officials.
Fisher, 60, was rushed to UCLA Medical Center by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics shortly after noon, after her 11-hour flight touched down at LAX.
A source who was not authorized to discuss the incident said the actress was “in a lot of distress on the flight.”
A statement released by United Airlines said that medical personnel met Flight 935 from London on arrival after the crew reported a passenger was unresponsive.
“Our thoughts are with our customer at this time,” the statement read.
Just prior to arrival, a pilot told the control tower that passengers who were nurses were attending to an “unresponsive” passenger.
“So they’re working on her right now,” the pilot said in a public recording of the conversation on Liveatc.net.
According to the LAX Police Department, officers responded to Terminal 7 around 12:15 p.m., for a call of a female passenger in cardiac arrest. On arrival, they found paramedics performing CPR on the victim, according to Officer Alicia Hernandez.
Todd Fisher, Carrie’s brother, told the Associated Press that his sister had been stabilized at the hospital but did not provide further details.
Fisher, who rose to stardom as Princess Leia, recently published an autobiography titled the “Princess Diarist,” her eighth book.
She is the daughter of famous Hollywood couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
Carrie Fisher, who has written and spoken openly about her struggles in Hollywood, is considered Hollywood royalty. She took on her prickly relationship with her mother in the book-to-movie "Postcards From the Edge.” She’s also been outspoken about her mental health issues and the solution she found — radical-sounding electroshock therapy.
News of Fisher’s condition sparked an outpouring of support and sympathy on social media.
Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, tweeted “thoughts and prayers for our friend and everyone's favorite princess right now.”
Actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, also took to Twitter: “as if 2016 couldn't get any worse... sending all our love to @carrieffisher”
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